Sala VIII. contains unimportant works of various Venetian schools.
Sala IX. is one of the most interesting of all, for here are the works of Gian Bellini, Mantegna, and some of the best examples of that individual and fascinating painter, Carlo Crivelli. On entering, one is at once arrested by the noble Pietà of Gian Bellini (214). In this most touching picture the artist has expressed himself with a deep human feeling which he rarely shows afterwards. We feel almost awed in the presence of the Mother’s infinite love and sorrow, and the perfect peace and calm of the dead Christ amid the agony of hopeless grief. St. John cries aloud in his despair, and a pitiless dawn is breaking behind them. It is an early work and the treatment of the flesh and heavy draperies is broad and severe. In the picture hanging next, Madonna and Child in a beautiful landscape (215), dated 1510, we see the change wrought by nearly fifty years. The intensity of feeling of the young Bellini has died away in technical perfection. The Madonna and Child (216) is an early work of the same period as the Pietà. In this beautiful sad Mother and Child is visible the earnest sentiment and the same broad manner of painting.
Mantegna’s three pictures hang opposite, and it is interesting to compare them with Bellini’s, as the two painters had much in common to start with, and departed widely each on his own lines afterwards. The Polyptych, St. Luke and other saints, with Pietà in upper part (200), is one of his earliest works, finished in 1454. The figures are very refined and carefully drawn, but they are rather stiff, and the execution almost timid. Beside this picture hangs one of his latest works, the Dead Christ and the Maries (199), and we can note the difference between the early and late style of the master; the careful academic manner of the first has yielded to the broad freedom of the second. This uncompromisingly foreshortened figure must have been an experiment, and is chiefly interesting technically. The Madonna and Child surrounded with cherubim (198) is a beautiful picture, painted in the broad manner of Mantegna’s maturity.
Carlo Crivelli fills the rest of the room with a wealth of colour and beauty. Madonna and Child with SS. Peter and Dominic (201) is so exquisite a picture, so lovely in colour and design, that one feels the last word has been said in an art that combines the highest decoration with a true and childlike religious feeling. Who has ever imagined a more pure and innocent creature than this lovely Madonna who sits with such unconscious grace in her rich garments on the stately throne? The Child, too, is so sweet as he earnestly squeezes a dove in both hands. The young S. Geminianus has the ardour of a martyr. The whole picture is a very exquisite harmony of colour and line. Coronation of Christ and the Virgin by the Eternal Father (202), signed and dated 1493, is a superbly decorative work glowing with rich colour. The flying angels seem really beings of the air, and the devout saints really dwellers in Paradise. S. Catherine and S. Sebastian are especially beautiful. The Pietà above (203) is very fine in composition, and the Christ is godlike with His long golden hair. The Crucifixion (206) is a restless composition. Crivelli has striven so hard to express his emotion, but the result is an exaggeration of forms and movement. There is no repose anywhere, draperies flying, fingers contorted; even the sky is in troubled wavelets. Madonna of the Candle (207). In this beautiful panel the Madonna sits like a goddess on her high throne, yet has all the sweetness of humanity. The perfect oval of her face and symmetry of her form are drawn by a master’s hand. The rich garland of fruits and the roses and lilies are painted with a loving care. There are also two panels of saints by Crivelli (204 and 205).
Sala X. contains Venetian pictures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There are four small pictures by Cima (217, 218, 219 and 220), charming little pictures in which there is more life and movement than in his larger works. Adoration of the Magi (223) by Stefano da Zevio, dated 1435, is a pleasing picture, showing the early Veronese character. The decorative Polyptych (228) is by Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni da Murano.
In Sala XI. we have Venetian schools of the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. Two landscapes by Canaletto (235 and 236) are full of light and air. Guardi has two views of the Grand Canal at Venice (242 and 243).
Sala XII., Lombard School.—Here are portraits of the Visconti family, of little artistic value. A Madonna Adoring the Child, with SS. Catherine and Joseph (248) by Vincenzo Civerchio. The Milanese painter Bernardino Buttinone has two pictures, Madonna and Child between SS. Bernardino and Stephen (249), signed and dated 145-. This picture has all the decided characteristics of the artist—the laboured execution, low flesh tones, high and prominent foreheads, enormous ears, claw-like fingers and vividly-coloured draperies. The small Madonna (250) is a highly-finished picture and equally lacking in beauty. The SS. Catherine and Sebastian by Defendente Ferrari are charming figures in gorgeous costumes.
Sala XIII. possesses four pictures by Borgognone. The most interesting is the small picture of the Madonna and Child with S. Clare and a Certosino (259). It is an early work, very devout and sweet in feeling, and shows the artist’s connection with Foppa, particularly in the type of the Child and the grey flesh tones. The latter, however, are very much modified, and form a very harmonious scheme with the white draperies and silvery colour of sky and water behind. Madonna and Saints (257), by Bevilacqua, is a decorative altarpiece with colour brilliant almost to crudeness.
Sala XIV. contains works of the sixteenth century by Leonardo’s followers. Two Magdalens, by Gianpietrino (262 and 263), are good examples of his work, and have some poetical charm. An unfinished Madonna (261) of Leonardesque composition shows a great similarity in the landscape background to that of the well-known Bacchus of the Louvre, a doubtful Leonardo. Madonna and Child with little S. John (271), by Bernardino dei Conti, is reminiscent of Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks. The colour is hot and the modelling lumpy.
Sala XV., Lombard school of sixteenth century.—The first picture in this room is a lovely Madonna and Child (276) by Cesare da Sesto. It is sympathetic in feeling and refined in execution. The arrangement of dark foliage behind the Madonna, showing on one side the distant landscape and pale sky, is very happy. It is the best picture we know of this artist. Madonna and Child (277) by Gaudenzio Ferrari is very typical of his style, rather affected in attitude and hot in colour. Close by hangs a Holy Family (279) by Bramantino. The drawing of the Saviour (280) is not admitted by the best authorities to be a genuine work of Leonardo’s. Two kneeling figures (281) by Boltraffio are distinguished by dignity and feeling. They show how well Boltraffio could paint portraits. Andrea Solario has three paintings and a drawing. The best is a portrait of a young man (282), whose characteristic head, with clear, almost hard outline, is well-drawn and carefully finished. Madonna and Child (286) by Sodoma is one of his most Leonardesque works.